Environmental Stories: Editor's Picks

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Volunteers joined the first organized coastal clean-up last July 17, 2011

Two years ago, the coastline Coastal Lagoon, officially known as the Las Piñas Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA), more popularly known as Freedom Island is covered with thick garbage and rubbish. Thru the efforts of Wild Birds Club of the Philippines, Save Freedom Island Movement and various environmental NGO’s helped in cleaning the coastal bay and as a result, the coastal lagoon is almost clean now.
The clean-up event at Freedom Island (Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism area) on April 20, 2013, Saturday, is in celebration of Earth Day which is observed in more than 192 countries every year to promote awareness and appreciation of our environment and to demonstrate support for its protection and restoration.

Freedom Island is the last remaining mangrove frontier in Metro Manila that serves as a sanctuary for avian, terrestrial and marine species. It is home for more than 80 species of migratory and endemic birds, including the already vulnerable Chinese Egret and Philippine Duck. The mangrove ecosystem also serves as a feeding, nesting and nursery grounds for commercially important fish, prawns, mollusks, crabs and shellfish where livelihoods of coastal communities depend. By this virtue, it has been declared as a critical habitat by Proclamation 1412 in 2007 and, also, been recently included in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance.

However, threats against the bird sanctuary’s existence, such as the controversial reclamation project, relentless dumping of waste and pollution, continue to remain. Thus, more action from the people is needed to protect and restore it.

Said coastal clean-up event is not only a campaign to inspire people to clean up their surroundings but a show of an alarming concern about further environmental depletion. It serves as a call to action to all citizens to take part in saving the environment, as well as a call to the government to act upon the garbage problem and to stop all disastrous reclamation projects. (Source: http://www.facebook.com/events/362286580548042/?fref=ts)

The delta in Egypt used to be a perfect location for fishing before it became the main destination for the country's sewage. The polluted waters threaten both the fisherman's wallet and his health.

0:00-01:10
Sheikh Sayadeen(head of fishermen), may his sould rest in peace, has previously gone to the parliament & they gave him false promises. The water was filled with a lot of fish and in only twenty four hours, it goes extinct. We can buy food. It's been five months that fishermen don't earn any money but what can they do; he's sad and his wife is crushed, he can do nothing. We had to send our children away to work either in farms or as doormen. In Tanta, there is plenty of fish but here in Monofeya we don't have any fish farms. We were the 'kings' of fish. In out water there was fish, snakes and different kinds of sea creatures but now everything is extinct.
01:11-02:40
Now you will see how we work in reality so you can see everything for yourself. Believe it or not, when someone used to come to buy fish from me, I used to get a box full of fish in only ten minutes. Look at the condition of our water now that used to be worshiped by our ancient father, the Pharaohs. When we were young, people used to swear saying "I swear on the pure king's soul" referring to the Nile. Now they can't say that anymore because it's no longer pure. Why would they even call it 'king'?
When an employer gets a deduction of one day from his salary as a punishment, they complain; while fishermen have been suffering for eleven years. The officials remove the Hyacinth and other Nile planets which costs 30 million pounds every year. Well, instead of spending money on that, why don't they clean the sewerage water? We don't care about being fishermen anymore; we just need a job to earn our living.
02:41-04:26
Now I'll show you exactly how we do our job. I'm a fisherman from Rosetta branch(of the Nile), from the village of 'Jezaii', Rashid governate. My name is Souba Abdel Nabi El Shimy.
Our problem started when the 'Sewerage project' or what is referred to 'The Death Project' started. It started on 1984 and at first it didn't have such a bad effect on us because the water used to have more shifts than now so it wasn't as fatal as it's been since 1986 till now. This project is mainly about the sewerage of Greater Cairo passing through Rahawi project to the Nile directly without any Sewage treatment which led to the discontinuity of the fishery. The only people who are benefiting from this are the people who own fish farms so their business would flourish and keep us working for them. We are not less human than they are, we should be equal.

04:27-04:59
Many fishermen are quitting on this job and trying to find something else like being doormen or else. Fishermen's children don't go to school. Fishermen are making their children find a job either in some fish farm or else; some of them even begs for money.
They never wonder why a new born is infected with the 'C' virus and Hepatic failure. They provide plasma treatment which costs millions and they are leaving this contaminated water like this. We don't want the medical treatment; we just want them to cleanse the water so we don't get diseases in the first place.
05:00-06:25
Check it yourself, there's no fish at all. We don't want a charity from no body, we just want the 'Sewerage project' to end; we're not asking for the impossible. A man is responsible for his wife and three children and is supposed to feed them. I only got two tiny fish today. Even if they were in gold & silver, it wouldn't be enough to feed us. We can do nothing but pray otherwise we would better not live on this earth. How can we afford this? Ought we fix the boat or buy food? This is job is no longer sufficient. If you ask other fishermen, they would tell worse than this; they just chose us to speak because we wouldn't offend anyone.
06:27-07:24
Here is one of the fishermen. He works as a day laborer for people so I he can feed my children. He doesn't even have an undershirt to wear as you can see. This network is the cleanest it could be like this; usually it is filled with worms.
07:25-08:50
My three children suffer from bilharzias because of this infected water. Most children here are infected with this disease. My two nephews have it. They also have 'C' virus. A month ago, you couldn't support standing anywhere near the water because of intensity of the sewerage; it was also filled with worms. Now it's much cleaner, there are no worms like before. We even can't invite you to eat because we don't have bread. Thank God for everything though.
08:50-
As you can see, all boats are empty.
My name is Hussein Eissa El Shakhs, a fisherman from Rosetta branch and Sheikh Sayadeen (the head of fishermen). We've had this problem for 40 years. In 70's & 80's, though, it was not as bad as it has been starting the 90's. It reached its peak since 1990. It's been 22 years that we've been living like 'homeless', literally. The Nile extends 120 km in Monofeya governate including more than 150,000 fishermen. This job is inherited through families.

Esther Muthoni, age 62, takes a break after working uninterruptedly for almost four hours. She has been going to the dumpsite since her husband passed away and left her without any income source. Although she doesn’t know how to read, she likes to look at the pictures of her book over and over again.

A group of informal waste pickers search for scrap metal, plastic bags and glass bottles that they resell to recycling companies. The Nairobi City Council, overwhelmed by the increasing garbage generation in the city, cooperates with them and contributes with the heavy machinery needed to stir the rubbish.

A Kenyan company based in Nairobi is recycling flip flops left on the beach in Mombosa and turning them into art and household beauties. This cultivation of used flip flops is helping in cleaning the beaches around the area and providing jobs for a lot of nationals.

Almost 50 million tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide every year. A large volume of second-hand and condemned electronic goods arrive in developing countries from the “developed” world, with a significant quantity arriving as e-waste, exported illegally as second hand goods.

CUE:
Fourteen years old Nigeria girl created a generator that produces electricity for six hours using a single liter of urine as fuel .

Headline:
Girl power generator with urine in Nigeria.

SLUG:
RAW-NIGERIA-ELECTRICITY-GENERATOR-:

Byline:
Taiwo Adeleke / --

SYNTHE:
Duro-Aina Adebola (Female), Urine power Generator initiator (Student)
Omotayo Fakinlede(Male), Professor of Engineering
Olatuji Araoye (Male), Engineer
Patrick Uloba (Male) Teacher.
SHOTLIST:
LAGOS, NIGERIA, JANUARY 2013
VAR of student starting the Generator.
VAR of cylinder and filters
VAR of bulb and socket with electricity
VAR of students talking
VAR of School University
VAR of Man in the Office
VAR of Lagos Street at Night
VAR of man starting generator
VAR of generator sounds
VAR of secondary school building
VAR of teacher with student in the classroom

SOUNDBITE 1, Duro-Aina Adebola (Female), Urine power Generator initiator (Student) (English, 00:14:18 seconds ):
"I got the idea when i went on net and i saw a family of five (5) killed by carbon-monoxide poison. its now stroke me that people are dying regularly from generator poison and that what could be done that wouldn't releases any harmful gases into the environment . Urine is a waste material definitely Nigerians will opt for urine since is a waste material, Nigerians like cheap things "

SOUNDBITE 2, Omotayo Fakinlede(Male), Professor of Engineering (English. 14:01 seconds)
"we can view hydrogen as the hydro carbon minus the carbon. There are very good properties that its as one of the most important thing is the environmental friendliness".

SOUNDBITE 3, Olatuji Araoye (Male), Engineer (English 10:18 seconds).
"Its depend on the cost of the generator first and i will look at the durability at the same time".

SOUNDBITE 4, Patrick Uloba (Male) Teacher.(English 20:18 seconds)
"We have done several other project before this, we are hoping that with the volume of information that as gone out on this project, we are trusting that somebody will come and pick up this project , so that it can be mass produce and it can be there in the market.